The Oil Palm frond and sludge are the Oil Palm by product which can be
utilized as cattle feed. They are considered as source of energy(carbohydrate). However,
they have a high crude fiber content, such as ADF, NDF and ADL. Fermentation is
expected to lower their crude fiber content. Therefore, a research was conducted to
study the effect of fermentation time on the fiber content of the ration containing 50%
oil palm frond, 30% oil palm sludge, 10% tofu by-product, and 10% rice brand. As
source of microbes, 30% (dry matter basis) of cattle feces was added. The fermentation
times were 0, 7, 14, and 21 days. The results indicated that as the fermentation time
increased from 0 day to 21 days, the NDF increased from 55.16% to 57.54%, the ADF
increased from 42.35% to 47.27%, and the ADL increased from 20.54% to 23.90%.
Additional result indicated that the hemicelluloses decreased from 12.80% to 10.26%